Serendipity Gallery, Soho New York
2151hrs Friday 18th February 2005

'Don't you think it's about time we told them?' Joanna played with the gold band dangling from her necklace. A wistful look covered her face.

'Told them what?' Dan questioned, a wide smile covering his face. Moving behind his lover, Dan's arms encircled her waist. They'd found a quiet corner for a moment alone and he intended to make the most of their time together.

'Everything!' Jo leant back to rest her head on Dan's shoulder and rolled her eyes.

'What…everything that happened in Reno over the last week?' he whispered in her ear, allowing his breath to trickle down the side of her neck.

A shiver ran the length of her body as she remembered everything that had happened while they visited Nevada during the last four days. 'Well, maybe not everything,' Jo agreed readily with a smile gracing her features.

'Then what shall we tell the rest of the Bob Whites?' Once again he teased her with the warmth of his breath cascading down her throat. 'That you went to Reno this last week for a social workers' conference?'

'I guess that would be a good start.' Turning in his arms, Jo reached a hand up to stroke Dan's cheek. He knows I can't think when I'm this close to him, the rat, and yet I allow him to manipulate me with his magnetism.

'Maybe we could drop in the fact that your incredibly romantic boyfriend managed to clear his hectic court schedule and joined you for Valentine's Day unexpectedly,' Dan suggested, finally giving in to her touch and laying his cheek in the palm of Jo's hand.

'You're teasing me, Dan,' Joanne scolded, watching his brown eyes twinkle with mischief.

'Caught,' he laughed easily before sobering, an imploring look in his liquid brown eyes. Jo could never resist that particular look. 'I don't want to risk offending Diana's feelings when she realizes we came home especially for Nick's first showing at her gallery.' Shaking his head, Dan smiled slightly. 'They've been planning this exhibition for two years.'

'Far longer than we have, is that what you're saying, Daniel?' Pausing to let Dan realize exactly how frustrated she felt at his delay, Joanna finally relented by teasing him. 'You and I know we had the perfect opportunity to tell them at dinner tonight, Daniel Mangan. Especially after your comment about how sexy I looked. You were just too chicken to confess in front of all your friends.'

'I was not chicken.' Defending himself in his best attorney's tone, Dan pulled his wife of four days closer and kissed her solidly on the lips. 'Jo, I wanted to wait. When Di called my cell on Tuesday night and left a message, she hinted at a special gathering of the Bob Whites and their partners tonight. I get the feeling she and Nick have some news she didn't want to divulge until she could get the entire group together. I thought we could surprise them with our news at the same time.'

'You think Nick proposed to Di at last?' Surprise covered Jo's face. But then I never thought you'd propose to me on Valentine's Day and I'd be married a few hours later, so I guess anything is possible.

'My instincts tell me it's more than that,' Dan stated. 'But I guess time will tell. We just have to be patient and see what Di has in mind for us when the invited guests leave.'

Serendipity Gallery, Soho New York
2152hrs Friday 18th February 2005

'So what's with Jim and Trixie tonight?' Peter asked the group surrounding him. 'Their body language at dinner can only be described as stilted, as though Jim couldn't get far enough away from Trixie. Yet he seemed genuinely concerned about her mental health?'

'And then there's those comments about her ex-boyfriend and this new guy in her life who has a child,' Brian agreed, running a hand through his dark hair. I cope with stress at work wonderfully, but not in my personal life. I guess I still find it hard to let go of my older brother protective instincts. I just don't want to see my baby sister hurt in any way. I bet none of the Bob Whites do. Which makes me wonder what Jim knows that the rest of us don't? And how close are Jim and Trixie really?

'I'm family,' Brian complained, once again running a hand through his locks in obvious distress. 'I didn't know my sister and her boyfriend had broken up. Nor did she tell me about his death. When I went outside earlier, I found Trix and Jim in an intimate embrace but they both looked incredibly sad and lonely. I'd like to know exactly what's going on between those two. I can't help thinking they're hiding secrets from each other and the rest of us.'

'I figured Honey would know if anyone did,' Sally commented, watching the pair under discussion mingling with the crowd across the room. They weren't together, yet they weren't really apart either. Strange, I never realized until Brian made the connection, but they do look kind of intimate together without any contact. Now I think back, they always have, and yet they avoid each other whenever possible. In the two years I've been dating Brian, either Jim or Trixie failed to complete a Bob-White reunion by cancelling out at the last minute.

'Why would I know?' Honey looked shocked. The astonishment in her tone drew three pairs of eyes to her.

'Because Jim is your brother and Trixie is your best friend,' Sally stammered, wondering if Brian's stories of growing up in Sleepyside were as perfect as they sounded.

'It's not like Trixie and I have the relationship we once shared. I hardly ever see her anymore,' Honey protested. I had hoped her move back to New York would rekindle our former friendship, because I really miss the close bond we once shared. 'Looking back now, she became more distant with her return, but I blamed the detachment on our romantic relationships. Trix had Josh, I had Peter, and all the other Bob Whites were involved,' Honey defended herself, seeking understanding in her friend's expressions. 'Now I have to wonder what the real truth is.' I can tell Sally has picked up on the estrangement between Trix and Jim by the way her eyes keep flicking to them. Di, I hope your plan for tonight works for more than the reason you originally intended.

'I didn't even notice when she changed boyfriends last year.' Shaking her head, Honey felt disappointed with her lack of insight. 'She never tells me anything about her life these days. And as for Jim, he's not much better. Since he met Sabina early last year, Jim's been as secretive about his relationship as Trixie is about hers.'

'Is Jim still involved with that woman?' Wrinkling his nose, Brian's dislike of the blonde woman echoed many of the others thoughts. However, only he'd been brave enough to speak of his aversion openly with his long-time friend. 'Jim told me he met this woman in London a couple of years ago. He described their weekend together as mutually satisfying. Initially, that signalled the end of the relationship as far as he'd been concerned. I know they still see each other from time to time, now she lives and works in New York, but she never comes to the apartment or leaves messages for Jim.'

'Have you been getting the "We're good friends" line too, Brian?' Peter asked, confused by Jim's out-of-character behaviour. I've dated his sister for almost four years and I've only really noticed a change in the last year. I wonder what event created this subtle transformation from determined single to, well, Sabina. 'Even though he brings her along as his date more often than not, I get the feeling there's nothing romantic between them.'

'That's because there isn't.' The words were ripped from Honey's mouth. 'I don't know why I said that, because I haven't a shred of evidence to base my assumption on. I just get the feeling Sabina and Jim are using each other for their own purposes and it has nothing to do with love.'

'In Jim's case, do you think it has anything to do with my little sister and his attempt to mend a thrice broken heart?' Brian asked, genuinely interested in Honey's opinion now he considered the question for the first time.

'Don't you think it's strange, Jim meeting this girl in London a few weeks before Trixie is due to move back to New York to start grad school?' Honey questioned, becoming intrigued by her own statements. It's as though I'm fourteen again and Trix and I were trying to solve a mystery. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be involved in investigating people's motivations and collecting clues. I'm beginning to realize it's a trait I've pushed to the back of my mind, but not lost all together.

'I know they fought in California when Trixie and I were fifteen,' Honey's eyes glazed over as she remembered the last mystery they'd been involved with. 'Jim blamed Trix for the stitches I had to have when the police found us.'

'I remember that.' Brian closed his eyes, recollecting the event which metamorphosed his feelings from simple friendship to what, at the time, he considered love for a younger Honey Wheeler. 'Before that mystery, no one had ever, really, been hurt on one of Trixie's escapades,' he commented.

'Would you mind telling the rest of us about it?' Peter's tone belayed his anxiety over Honey's comment as he gathered her closer to him. 'What do you mean the police found you? What happened for you to need stitches?'

'Honey's dad offered to take all the Bob Whites for a long weekend to Disneyland on his private jet. He had business in California. Jim, Dan, and I decided we couldn't get away from college. Mr and Mrs Lynch wouldn't let Di out of school because her grades needed improving, and Mart decided to stay home to help Di study. So, in the end, only Honey and Trix went for the weekend.'

Honey continued the story when she noticed the interested expression on Peter and Sally's faces. 'We met a girl, Alice Whitman, who claimed to have been at the centre of a kidnap plot a few years earlier,' Honey's hazel eyes took on a distant glaze as she recalled the mystery Trixie had dragged her into. 'Her father owned a software development company and paid a huge ransom to get her back. Alice's fun had been curtailed because she had a bodyguard constantly watching her every movement since the abduction.'

'Being the soft-hearted person Honey is,' Brian complemented the woman he still considered one of his closest friends, 'Honey decided to befriend her immediately, believing Alice would be safe with both Trix and Honey to protect her. Only Trix pretended to be you,' he addressed Honey with a shake of his head, 'because she didn't trust the girl's bodyguard and made a major mystery out of the weekend. Turned out the pair of them had kidnapped the real Alice three years earlier with the same scam. They almost succeeded with Honey and Trix until one of the hotel employees became suspicious.'

'Thank goodness the man turned out to be an undercover police officer and saw them take Trix and I out of the hotel via the back door.' Shaking her head, Honey now wondered what all the fuss had been about, even though she had been terrified at the time. 'When the police finally discovered our location, the fake Alice had made Trixie call my Dad with a ransom demand while the bodyguard held a knife to my throat. When Trix hesitated just a moment too long, he deliberately nicked me to frighten Trixie into compliance. I've never seen Trixie so scared in my entire life. She couldn't speak for a full five minutes, which infuriated the fake Alice and let the police trace her cell phone.'

'We had to stay in California a few days longer than planned because Mother insisted I consult a plastic surgeon to cover the disfigurement.' Honey sighed at her mother's typical behaviour. 'Jim left college and flew out the minute he heard we'd been kidnapped. He greeted me like a long lost sister, but he openly displayed his fury with Trixie.'

'But what does all that have to do with the current situation between Jim, Trixie, and their so-called partners?' Sally asked, confused.

'It took a couple of years for my pigheaded brother to repair his relationship with Trixie after the humdinger of a fight they had,' Honey explained, trying to remember the exact words Jim and Trixie had hurled at each other over the incident. 'He blamed her for my injuries and refused to forgive her. When they did finally make up, things seemed back to normal for the Bob Whites. Most of us had paired off by then and we expected Jim and Trix to do the same, eventually.'

'Until my sister decided to go to George Washington on a full scholarship,' Brian stated. 'I still don't understand to this day how she got the grades or managed to finish her degree in three years, even staying on for summer school.'

Suddenly Brian appreciated his lack of insight into his sister's moods and motivations while he'd become absorbed at college. I guess I can finally see the reason Honey and I broke up while she was still a freshman at NYU. Between starting her Bridal Design business and my devotion and dedication to medicine, we never had enough time to nurture our relationship. I wonder what would have happened if we'd made time for us instead of concentrating on our dreams? Even back then, Honey displayed more emotional maturity and intuition. It didn't matter how she tried to explain it, I only saw her leaving as a defection.

With a new understanding, Brian added thoughtfully, 'The distance between DC and New York probably became a major factor in Jim and Trix remaining nothing more than friends. The rest of us stayed in the city to finish college and end our relationships with each other. I guess we've all been lucky enough to find other people.' Brian smiled happily down at Sally. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he pulled her close and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek to tell her just how much he appreciated her.

'Trix returned to New York single,' Honey took up the story with a slightly confused look in her eye. 'Jim worked for Bathurst Corporation, Dad's company, and remained actively single as far as we knew. They appeared to take up where they had left off a few years earlier. They were good friends who spent a lot of time with each other and the Bob Whites. Then one night Trix turns up and announces she's started dating this guy called Josh. It didn't take much to see Jim devastation, but the relationship continued well past most of our expectations. When Sabina magically turned up in New York on business at the beginning of last year, Jim immediately hooked up with her.'

'I thought Trixie introduced Jim to Sabina?' A frown creased Sally's lips. 'I distinctly remember Trix taking a keen interest in the state of Jim and Sabina's relationship. She thought they'd be perfect for each other.'

'No,' Brian contradicted with a shake of his head. 'Jim had definitely met Sabina six months earlier in London and had a relationship with her then. I remember thinking how out of character Jim acted. He's not really one to have a weekend fling. Surprised at his own actions, Jim said he wasn't in the market for anything permanent at the time.'

'If I was in love with someone I'd discovered dating another guy, I might grab the first girl I met as a cure for my broken heart,' Peter commented to no one in particular. 'You mentioned a thrice broken-heart, Brian. I suspect you think the first time was when his sister was hurt chasing a mystery without the rest of the gang there to get the girls out of trouble if it arose. From the sound of your story, it did?' Waiting for Brian's nod, Peter continued. 'So Jim's anger should have been aimed at himself for not being able to protect the women in his life. Instead, he took his anger out on your sister. I think that speaks for itself. The second betrayal would have been the distance between them during college when the rest of you were in New York.'

'I begin to see your logic.' A half smile, half frown curled the corners of Brian's lips. 'I just wish I'd seen it a couple of years ago when it could have been more useful.'

'Then finally, just when the coast appears clear, they are getting along famously, they're both footloose and fancy free, along comes a boyfriend to throw a wrench in the works,' Peter concluded. 'If I had a history with this girl, I might take up a … um… more physical relationship with someone else who felt the same way. In the back of my mind, I might be living with the hope that the woman I loved realized I'd always be there for her. Someday, I hoped she'd turn to me for protection when she got herself into a tight situation. You know, white knight to the rescue?'

'Oh, gleeps, Peter, when you say it like that I'm sure my stupid brother is doing just that,' Honey turned to her boyfriend, who immediately took her in his arms. 'It all makes sense.'

'It certainly would explain the lack of romantic interaction between Jim and Sabina,' Brian agreed. 'I never could tell what Jim saw in her.'

'And it would explain the intimate atmosphere which envelopes Jim and Trix whenever they're together,' Sally concurred, her eyes once again straying to the couple in question.

A smile covered her lips at the attention their enclave attracted from the other members of the Bob Whites. Sally didn't need to inform Honey or Brian they'd been joined by Mart and Di, as the pair immediately made their presence known.

'But that would only work if Trixie felt the same way as Jim,' Diana chimed in. She'd managed to sneak up on the group and listen in on most of the conversation. 'And I might add I have never doubted that fact for a moment.'

'Then why do you think she dated Joshua for so long?' Sally asked, wondering about the insight these Bob Whites seem to have with each other when one of them was in trouble. Will Linnie, Jo, Peter, Nick, and I ever really be admitted to this tight group? She wondered sadly, realizing how much she had missed not growing up in Sleepyside.

'I can answer that,' Mart chimed in for the first time since joining the conversation with Di. His blue eyes flicked between his friends, drawing attention to the seriousness of his words. 'Think about it logically. What would make Trixie suddenly stop searching out mysteries a few weeks before her 16th birthday?'

'A promise to Jim!' Honey stated, appalled at her brother's manipulation of her best friend. 'A promise she made because he made her feel she betrayed my safety when Alice's bodyguard knifed me. Oh, gleeps, Jim had no idea how horrible Trix felt when she watched that man maul me.'

'Did everyone understand that?' Di giggled. 'You sounded like the Honey I knew at fourteen years old.'

'We've all changed since then.' Mart remarked cryptically in the rational way he'd developed during college when presented with a logical problem. Hours spent at a computer terminal had been responsible for his break up with Diana. I would become so involved with my work, I'd forget the rest of the world existed until Di called to chastise me. Eventually she got fed up with being stood up and started dating someone else. It still took me several months to realize my girl wasn't my girl anymore and pull my head out of the clouds. Even then, I still continued to play the computer jerk to perfection until I met Linnie and realized there was a life outside my keyboard.

'We've grown apart with our separate lives.' A slight frown covered Mart's hansom features as he continued with his thoughts. 'For most of us, the changes have been very positive and we've managed to keep our bonds of friendship throughout all the upheavals. But what about Jim and Trix?' He asked, silence greeting his words. 'Trixie is supposed to be finishing up her Masters as a Clinical Psychologist. So why doesn't she put into practice some of the techniques she's learning in psychology and conflict resolution? Can you see her solving the mysteries of complete stranger's mind? Personally, I don't think so. So what's she covering up? Who or what is she actually protecting?'

'Oh, Mart,' Honey exclaimed, tears welling in her eyes. 'How long have you suspected Trixie isn't what she appears to be?'

'Ever since she came back from Washington with a haunted look clouding her eyes, I wondered if she hid something,' frowning, Mart buried his hands in his pockets. 'Have you ever noticed how she's unable to look you in the eye when she talks about grad school? Or the way she's become very good at changing the topic of conversation when she doesn't want to discuss a subject?'

'Especially her feeling and emotions,' Brian stated flatly, completely in agreement with his sibling. 'Tonight, I heard her mention a Bob-White reunion for the first time. Maybe we should all think about getting together for the weekend.'

'We're one step ahead of you Brian,' Honey smiled shyly. 'I think it's time you told everyone about operation get-together, Di.'

'OK, gang, I hope you're all in, because this is the plan-' she started.

'I hope you weren't going to start without me?' Dan's voice hinted at his disapproval for once again being left out. 'I seem to remember I was inducted as a Bob White.'

'Glad to see you could tear yourself away from Joanne to join us,' Mart teased lightly. 'I was getting the impression you were stuck together like glue.'

'I sent Jo to keep Jim and Trix busy on the other side of the gallery with Nick and Linnie. I had the feeling the lot of you were up to something tonight. You're not half obvious,' Dan rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. 'Couldn't you have picked a less public place to hold your discussion?'

'In that case let's get this over with as quickly as possible. I don't want Trixie or Jim to realize something's up. Come into my office and I'll tell you what Honey and I have planned,' Di led the way to her office, ushered everyone in, and closed the door.